Florida peninsula sizzles as summer heat takes hold

Sunday was the third straight day of 90 degrees or better for local temperatures, a string matched in early June. But it was only the second time this year that such a mini heat wave was posted by local reporting stations.

Official highs at Palm Beach International Airport over the weekend were 90, 91 and 90 Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively. On the island it was and 91, 92, and 91 despite weak easterly breezes that tried to drag in some cooler ocean air.

This, of course, is not wildly abnormal — the average high at PBIA this time of the year is 89, ticking up to 90 on July 7 and 91 on July 31 before edging back to 90 again on Aug. 8.

But the heat in June has been strong enough to keep temperatures running 1.6 degrees above normal. The average high this month at PBIA has been 89 with an average low of 77.

That means highs have been just slightly above average — about a degree — but lows have been coming in up to 3 degrees above normal.

The National Weather Service in Miami predicts highs in Palm Beach will be in the upper 80s most of this week — and the closer you are to the beach the more chance there is of the temperature failing to hit 90.

Water temperatures are now running as high as 84 degrees off South Florida beaches.

RECORD WATCH: Jacksonville tied a high temperature record Saturday with 99 degrees, matching a mark set on the date in 1952.

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SPOTLESS DAY: Speaking of weather trends, the sun was spotless today for the fifth day in a row, according to NASA writer Tony Phillips at Spaceweather.com. It’s another indication that we’re headed toward solar minimum, which occurs in 11 year cycles.

The number of sunspots has been dropping for the past two years, Phillips said. Solar minimum should be reached in 2019 or 2020.

“Solar Minimum brings many interesting changes,” he said in a Spaceweather blog post earlier this month. “For instance, as the extreme ultraviolet output of the sun decreases, the upper atmosphere of Earth cools and collapses. This allows space junk to accumulate around our planet.”

The impacts of solar minimum and maximum on Earth’s climate and weather are small, according to NASA.